Throughout my first year as Director, I have spoken[1] often about the public’s declining trust in our institutions and financial markets.[2] I have observed that, while there is no single cause for this decline of trust, it is in part due to the perception that we—the regulators—are failing to hold bad actors accountable, and that there are two sets of rules: one for the big and powerful and another for everyone else.
In those speeches, I also outlined steps that we in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement would take, and have taken, to address the decline in public